Joe Manchin Cartoons

China virus cases rise again, 66 more on ship in Japan

BEIJING (AP) — China reported a rise in new virus cases Monday, possibly denting optimism that disease control measures including isolating major cities might be working, while Japan reported dozens of new cases aboard a quarantined cruise ship.

The mainland death toll rose by 97 to 908 in the 24 hours through midnight Sunday and 3,062 new cases were reported. That was up 15% from Saturday and broke a string of daily declines. A government spokesman had said Sunday those declines showed containment measures were successful.

The operator of a cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama, near Tokyo, said an additional 66 cases were found aboard. That is in addition to 70 reported earlier.

Health Minister Katsunobu Kato said the Japanese government was considering testing all 3,711 passengers and crew on the Diamond Princess, which would require them to remain aboard until results are available. Health authorities are scrambling to deliver medicine requested by more than 600 passengers.

“We are doing the utmost to keep everyone in good health,” Kato said.

The fatality toll from the new virus has passed the 774 people believed to have died in the 2002-03 epidemic of severe acute respiratory syndrome, another viral outbreak that originated in China. The total of 40,171 cases on the mainland of the new virus vastly exceeds the 8,098 sickened by SARS.

More than 360 cases have been confirmed outside mainland China, including two deaths in Hong Kong and the Philippines.

China has built two hospitals and sent thousands of extra doctors, nurses and other health care workers to Wuhan, the city of 11 million people in central China that is the epicenter of the outbreak. Most access to Wuhan was suspended Jan. 23. Restrictions have spread to cities with a total of 60 million people.

Businesses are gradually reopening following the Lunar New Year holiday, which was extended to discourage travel in an attempt to contain the virus, but they face heavy losses.

At the Sanyuanli market in Beijing, the Chinese capital, shoppers in face masks mixed with delivery drivers who were collecting orders of meat, fruit and vegetables. Stalls were stocked with pork, mutton, seafood and vegetables.

“The number of customers here is down a lot, maybe by more than half,” said Liu Ying, who sells walnuts, cashews and other specialties. “But you can see a lot of people calling in orders, so we’re slowly getting busy again.”

Asian stock markets slid Monday following warnings that investor optimism the disease and its economic impact were being brought under control might be premature.

China’s central bank announced a 300 billion yuan ($43 billion) fund to make low-interest loans to producers of medicine and medical supplies or other companies involved in fighting the virus.

Over the weekend, the government promised tax cuts and subsidies to farmers, supermarkets, producers of medical supplies and companies that contribute to anti-disease work.

China’s leaders are trying to keep food flowing to crowded cities despite the anti-disease controls and to quell fears of possible shortages and price spikes following panic buying after most access to Wuhan and nearby cities was cut off.

Consumer inflation spiked to an eight-year high of 5.4% over a year earlier in January, driven by a 4.4% rise in food costs, the government reported Monday. Food prices rose 1.4% from the previous month.

“It appears that supply disruptions and hoarding due to the coronavirus outbreak helped to keep food prices elevated during the week after Chinese New Year, when they would normally drop back,” Julian Evans-Pritchard of Capital Economics said in a report.

Organizers of the Hong Kong Arts Festival on Monday canceled all of its more than 120 planned music, dance and drama performances, including two concerts by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The festival was due to start this week and run through mid-March.

Meanwhile, the mother of a physician who died last week in Wuhan said in a video released Sunday she wants an explanation from authorities who reprimanded him for warning about the virus in December.

The death of Li Wenliang, 34, prompted an outpouring of public anger. Some postings left on his microblog account said officials should face consequences for mistreating Li.

“We won’t give up if they don’t give us an explanation,” Lu Shuyun said in the video distributed by Pear Video, an online broadcast platform.

The video shows flowers in her home with a note that says, “Hero is immortal. Thank you.”

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Associated Press Writers Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo and Eileen Ng in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, contributed.

Trump budget would cut $4.4T in spending, boosting defense while slashing safety nets, foreign aid

The White House on Sunday unveiled a $4.8 trillion budget proposal that would slash spending dramatically on foreign aid and social safety nets, while including $2 billion for a southern border wall and substantially boosting funding to NASA, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Homeland Security.
Fox News has confirmed the details of the budget, which The Wall Street Journal first reported. The package, set to be formally announced on Monday, as-is stood little chance of passage in the House of Representatives, which the Democrats have controlled. Still, it served as a signal of the president's priorities as Republicans have aimed to retake the chamber in the 2020 elections.
The plan aims to eliminate the federal deficit -- or the difference between spending and revenue that is slated to exceed $1 trillion this year -- by 2035. In all, the White House is seeking to cut $4.4 trillion in federal spending over the next 10 years, including reductions in spending on food stamps and federal disability benefits through more stringent work and eligibility requirements.
Total cuts to "non-defense discretionary programs,” which do not include Medicare or Social Security, amount to $2 trillion in savings under the plan. The budget additionally calls for renewing the Trump administration's tax cuts for individuals and families that would otherwise expire in 2025. Modifications in Medicare prescription-drug pricing would account for $130 billion in savings.
"Working together, the Congress can reduce drug prices substantially from current levels," Trump said during last week's State of the Union address. "I have been speaking to Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and others in the Congress in order to get something on drug pricing done, and done properly. I am calling for bipartisan legislation that achieves the goal of dramatically lowering prescription drug prices. Get a bill to my desk, and I will sign it into law without delay."
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., bashed the plan Sunday night. "The budget is a statement of values and once again the president is showing just how little he values the good health, financial security and well-being of hard-working American families."
Foreign aid would be reduced by 21 percent, in keeping with the president's push to have other countries pay what he calls their "fair share" for their own defense. Trump's temporary suspension of aid to Ukraine helped trigger impeachment proceedings; one of Republicans' defenses was that the president has long sought to suspend or reduce U.S. financial commitments overseas -- especially to notoriously corrupt countries.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would face a massive 26-percent reduction in funding. The Trump administration has rolled back Obama-era EPA regulations and oversight, saying they have hurt the economy for little benefit.
The proposal also would cut the Department of Housing and Urban Development's budget by 15 percent, while incorporating $2.8 billion for grants to help combat homelessness. And, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would see a 9 percent cut, although its $4.3 billion allocation for fighting infectious disease would remain amid the coronavirus spread.
Homeland Security's budget would grow by 3 percent; the National Nuclear Security Administration's by 19 percent; and the Department of Veterans Affairs' by 13 percent.
The Fiscal Year 2021 budget further aims to increase military spending 0.3 percent to $740.5 billion. It doubles spending on artificial intelligence from $973 million to nearly $2 billion by 2020, including a focus on quantum computing.
Fox News reported this weekend on the budget's 12-percent hike in NASA funding, with the goal of returning astronauts to the moon. No one has been to the moon since 1972 under NASA's now-shuttered Apollo program.
Since taking office, Trump has made space exploration one of its top priorities, and his administration has set a target of 2024 for the next lunar landing.
NASA's new space program named Artemis, for the Greek goddess of the moon and sister to Apollo, has aimed to put the first woman on the moon. Long-term, NASA has wanted to establish a sustainable human presence on the moon with the goal of sending humans to Mars in the 2030s.
Trump’s budget specifically would increase NASA spending from about $22.6 billion to $25.2 billion in fiscal 2021, one of the biggest spending increases requested since the 1990s. $3 billion will go toward new funding to develop human landers.
The big lunar budget request was in addition to Trump's other astronomical project: the Space Force. Trump signed an Oval Office directive last February to make the Space Force the sixth branch of the military, with a mission to patrol the orbit and protect the U.S. from attacks.
"Just weeks ago, for the first time since President Truman established the Air Force more than 70 years earlier, we created a brand-new branch of the U.S. armed forces," Trump said at the State of the Union. "It is called the Space Force. Very important."
Fox News' Chad Pergram, John Roberts and Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.

Manchin hits back after Trump calls him 'weak,' 'corrupt' over impeachment vote

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., on Saturday defended his vote to convict President Trump on two charges of impeachment, even as Trump mocked him on Twitter, dubbing him "Joe Munchkin."
Manchin, who has represented a state Trump carried by 40 percentage points in 2016, previously voted against his own party on some issues; among them, he was the only Democrat who voted to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh in 2018. Manchin seemed on the fence about whether to acquit Trump in the days leading up to last Wednesday's vote but said he ultimately voted with his party because Trump's defense team refused to introduce key witnesses and produce relevant documents necessary to prove the president's innocence.
MANCHIN DEFENDS IMPEACHMENT TRIAL VOTE TO OUST TRUMP, SAYS HE WANTED MORE EVIDENCE TO ACQUIT
Trump goaded Manchin, telling him to "read the transcript" of the July 25, 2019 phone call. Democrats had alleged Trump attempted to strongarm the president of Ukraine into opening an investigation into 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden in exchange for military aid; Trump and the White House have denied he did anything wrong.
"I’ve read the transcripts thoroughly & listened to the witnesses under oath. Where I come from a person accused defends themselves with witnesses and evidence," Manchin responded on Twitter.
In the days since his acquittal, Trump has attacked the probe, calling it a "hoax" and lambasting the Democrats and lone GOP senator, Mitt Romney of Utah, who voted to convict him.
Trump called Manchin a "puppet Democrat Senator" and claimed his constituents were "furious" with Manchin's vote.
"The people of West Virginia will no longer look at weak & pathetic Joe Manchin the same (I got the Pension Bill approved, Manchin couldn't do it)," Trump tweeted. "The wonderful people of Utah will never look at "grandstander" Mitt Romney with anything but contempt & disgust!"
Manchin fired back, accusing Trump of taking credit for key legislation that raised the minimum pension for state employees, including teachers.
"Pres. Trump - no Democrat has worked harder in a bipartisan way in the hopes that you would succeed. The people of WV know exactly who has worked day & night for the last 5 years to secure their healthcare & pensions & it wasn’t you," Manchin tweeted.

Reporter's Notebook: Trump's impeachment trial and the power of prayer

Humorist Will Rogers may have summed it up best.
“All I can say for the United States Senate is that it opens with a prayer and closes with an investigation,” he said.
Support it or not, the Senate just completed a rancorous impeachment trial. Now, President Trump has been contesting whether House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., truly prayed for him, as she often has intimated at her weekly news conferences.
Harvard professor Arthur Brooks delivered the keynote speech at the National Prayer Breakfast in Washington the day after the trial concluded. Brooks asserted Washington was gripped by a “crisis of contempt and polarization.” He urged those in attendance to “love your enemies.”
But, speaking at the same breakfast, Trump was having none of it.
“I don’t know if I agree with you,” the president told Brooks and those assembled at the prayer breakfast.
First, Trump couldn’t contain his enmity for Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, the sole Republican senator who voted to convict him on one article of impeachment.
In his floor speech announcing he’d vote to convict the president, Romney observed that at the outset of the trial, senators “swore an oath before God to exercise impartial justice. I am profoundly religious. My faith is at the heart of who I am. I take an oath before God as enormously consequential.”
Romney added that his “promise was before God.” He wasn’t beholden to Trump or the rest of the Senate Republican Conference – despite efforts by colleagues to persuade the Utah Republican to acquit Trump.
Yet, there at the National Prayer Breakfast, the president hectored Romney for speaking about his faith when deciding how to cast his votes in the trial.
“I don’t like people who use their faith as justification for doing what they know is wrong,” Trump said.
Pelosi was seated a few spots away from the president.
“Nor do I like people who say ‘I pray for you’ when you know that is not so,’” Trump added, referring to the speaker’s intercessions on his behalf.
Back at the Capitol that same morning, Pelosi railed against Trump for contesting how Romney and the speaker both said they turned to faith.
“Whatever he said, it was just so completely inappropriate,” Pelosi said of Trump, “especially at a prayer breakfast.”
But then, it was Pelosi who called into question whether “the president understands prayer or people who do pray.”
She reiterated that she prayed “hard for him, because he is so off the track of our Constitution, our values, our country.”
The California Democrat noted she would continue to “pray for him, and I do so sincerely and without anguish.”
And, just as Trump challenged the sincerity of the speaker, Pelosi wondered about the president, too.
“He’s talking about things he knows little about: faith and prayer,” Pelosi said.
Someone who has known something about faith and prayer: Senate Chaplain Barry Black. Prayer permeated Trump’s impeachment trial on a daily basis. Many TV networks took in the daily invocations delivered by Black, live on the air. In his nearly two decades as Senate Chaplain, Black has been known for infusing daily prayers, which have opened Senate sessions, with devotionals related to the business at hand on the floor.
On the day the Senate received the articles of impeachment from the House, Black prayed that the Lord would “strengthen our lawmakers for their journey. Prepare them for the ravages of the valley and the chill of the mountain summits.” The next day, Black prayed that God would guide “our lawmakers to make right choices in challenging times.” On the first formal day of arguments at the trial, Black prayed that God would grant “wisdom to the distinguished Chief Justice John Roberts as he presides.” He noted that since senators had “become jurors, remind them of Your admonition in 1 Corinthians 10:31, that whatever they do should be done for Your Glory. Help them remember that patriots reside on both sides, of the aisle. That words have consequences.”
Black also prayed for “civility” during the trial.
On January 24, Black prayed that senators would “respect the right of the opposing side to differ regarding convictions and conclusions. Give them the wisdom to distinguish between facts and opinions without lambasting the messengers.” In the lone Saturday session of the Senate trial, Black prayed that “we trust the power of Your prevailing providence to bring this impeachment trial to the conclusion You desire.”
On the following Monday, Black had two nuggets for senators. He observed the death of Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna, and, later, noted that it was the birthday of Roberts.
“As this impeachment process unfolds, give our senators the desire to make the most of their time on Earth,” Black said.
Black also prayed for God to “guard us from those who smile but plan evil in their hearts.”
As the trial moved tilted toward its final stages, Black reminded senators that “they alone are accountable to You for their conduct,” adding “we always reap what we sow.” Black also prayed that God would “guide our lawmakers. May they strive to permit justice to roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
There’s always been a fine line for House and Senate chaplains to walk when tangling with political business in their prayers – yet refraining from delivering a vanilla, indistinctive message which doesn’t resonate.
The late Senate Chaplain Richard Halverson raised eyebrows in 1994, when he prayed for O.J. Simpson on the Senate floor following the arrest of the football star after the nationally televised car chase.
“Our nation has been traumatized by the fall of a great hero,” prayed Halverson. “May he be comforted by the sense of the presence of the God who loves him.”
The Senate wrestled with a sweeping telecommunications policy bill in 1995. One question in the legislation was how to deal with obscene material -- which Senate Chaplain Lloyd Ogilvie noted was “littering this information superhighway.” Opening the Senate one morning in the middle of the telecommunications debate, Ogilvie prayed that God would “guide the senators as they consider how to control computer pollution.”
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., took issue with Ogilvie’s prayer. Leahy argued that Ogilvie went too far and “it seemed he was part of the debate.” Leahy suggested that Ogilvie should leave the legislating to the senators.
“Perhaps he should allow us to debate these issues,” said Leahy of Ogilvie.
Such is the power of prayer now in the nation’s capital.
Perhaps Washington doesn’t have a prayer now... at least one to which everyone can agree.